“It was a dream-come-true. It was exciting to grow up watching these teams on TV and knowing that one day you could be one of those players on TV with other kids watching you and dreaming of being in that position,” said Parthasarathy.

Parthasarathy is ranked No. 233 nationally in the 2015 class, the No. 83 right-handed pitcher in the class, and the No. 27 ranked prospect in Texas for 2015. The righty has been to 11 Perfect Game events, including last year’s Jr. National Showcase, where he said he drew the most interest from colleges.

In a few years he and fellow 2015 recruit Kendal Jefferies will both call Rice University’s Reckling Park home.

“I felt like that would be a great place to play and would give me a great opportunity to maybe be drafted one day, but to definitely play at a great school,” said Jefferies on his decision to choose Rice. “I liked the coaches. They were really nice to me. They didn’t give me a time table, so I could make my choice whenever I wanted.”

Parthasarathy narrowed down his list of potential colleges to two: Stanford and Rice.

“I wanted a really strong academic school. It just come down to coaches, proximity to where I live, and I just liked their baseball program a lot,” said Parthasarathy, who mentioned he was able to take three or four visits to Rice during the recruiting process.

“I went to the Perfect Game Jr. National Showcase last year and I pitched pretty well and that’s when things really started blowing up and I started getting a lot of opportunities from that,” Parthasarathy said. “It’s probably the greatest thing I’ve done exposure-wise.”

Parthasarathy and Jefferies give Rice University five commits in the 2015 class, which now has four players ranked in the Top 500. Rice University's 2015 recruiting class is currently ranked 49th nationally.